Democracy—in its broadest terms—will be on the ballot this November. The fact that the Republican nomination will almost certainly go to a candidate who continues to deny the legitimacy of the 2020 election and acted to overturn those results is, in many ways, hard to believe. Yet, that is our reality. Not only will that candidate be the Republican nominee, but he is currently the frontrunner to win the presidential race.
The fact that former President Donald Trump is in this position speaks volumes about how little regard a huge portion of the American electorate has for the future of our democracy. Moreover, his voluminous authoritarian statements and praise of authoritarian leaders seems to enhance that support, not detract from it.
President Biden has rightfully pointed to this election being about preserving our democracy and that being the issue above all others. He is absolutely correct. However, this issue goes well beyond Trump and his anti-democratic proclivities. Trump alone cannot overturn an election or subvert the will of the voters. He needs a full cast of enablers to achieve that.
We cannot lose sight of the fact that Trump has a full cadre of election deniers who continue to expound the notion that Biden is not a legitimate president and that the 2020 election results should never have been certified.
What makes the potential overturning the upcoming 2024 election even more dangerous than 2020 is that the Republican speaker of the House, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) is not only an election denier, but a ringleader of that effort. He has never renounced his claim and has the support of the majority of his caucus in claiming the last presidential election was illegitimate. In 2020, it was Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats who controlled the House. While it is unclear which party will control the House when the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, 2025, it is control of the House between Election Day 2024 and that date that provides those intent on ensuring a Trump victory—regardless of the results of the vote—the opportunity to do so.
In a recently published and extraordinarily important article published in the Washington........